Country Rican

Linda Today is my niece's birthday.  She is turning 23 and it seems like yesterday she was 2.  I am a little emotional today, because my mother left after an extended visit yesterday, so today is my first official day on my own with my baby and my husband without mom.  And, to top it off, my baby girl is a month old.  A month!  I think about Linda being 23 and it makes me want to cry that before I know it, my little Sofia will be 23 too.  They grow up so fast! I know it's cliché -  but it is also true. Linda holds a special place in our family because she was first for all of us.  She was my parents' first grandchild.  My older brother's first (and only) child.  For my other brother and myself she was the first niece.  She was the princess.  And we were all in love with her; really we still are. As usual, I can only speak for myself, so here it goes. Linda was the first newborn I ever held.  She was 3 days ol...

I left Puerto Rico at the age of 22, in 1996.  Yes, I know how old I am.  My friend Glianny and I had a bit of Olympic fever, so we came to Georgia.  This fever was compounded by the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico; and the fact that my older brother lived in Athens Georgia.  I also had an R.E.M. poster on my bedroom wall.  That has nothing to do with anything, except that when I put that poster on my wall I knew nothing of Athens, UGA or the 40 watt.  At that tiime, the last thing I was thinking was that I would marry a gringo - born and bread in the South.  Or that I would someday live in rural Georgia with my husband and baby girl, running a business, raising a family. Where is all this coming from?  Well my mom  came to Georgia for the first time in February to help me with baby, and through her eyes I have been forced to relive what it was like for me when I first moved here.  I was a lot like her, after all she raised me and...

  The following blog discusses my labor experience and has some personal medical details some people might not care to read.  Gus, this means you.  If you are not comfortable with discussions of cms and other such things, maybe you should skip this. It has been two weeks since my baby girl, Sofia Carolina, was born.  My mom keeps telling me to write it down, before I forget it all, because it is already starting to grow hazy.  They say it is evolution's way of ensuring the propagation of the species.  Who knows?  All I know is that I better write it before I forget, and maybe baby girl will get a kick out of it someday. I want to say I feel blessed and lucky to have a great husband and great mother.  Without their support I have no idea what I'd be doing, but I am sure it would not be writing on the blog.  My house is clean and we are all fed thanks to my mother.  She is on top of every little thing and allows me the luxu...